Hi Gerry,
Thank you for leaving a place for comments!
Trying to identify some plants in my early April backyard, I have narrowed these tall (some >3′), yellow blooming plants down to either Hairy Cat’s Ear, False Dandelion – Hypochaeris radicata or Wild Lettuce, Canada Lettuce – Lactuca canadensis. Would you help me?
My plants have the floret of hairy dandelion-like basal leaves, which suggests the cat’s ear. But the cat’s ears flowers are single; mine are in a cluster like the wild lettuce. But unlike wild lettuce, mine have no milky sap when stem or leaf is broken. Like the wild lettuce, the lower half of the stem on mine has a reddish hue.
I’ll be happy to send a photo, if that would help. I’d like to know if I should keep some of them for edible, herbal, or medicinal purposes, or pull them!
Thank you so much for any help you can give!
-Jayne